The race for Syracuse school board in Tuesday's election pits three Democrats in the heavily Democratic city against two other candidates -- one a Republican, one from the Green Party -- who could hardly be more different from each other.

The campaign for three spots on the board comes at a time when the chronically struggling district is facing even larger challenges than usual.

Teachers are reeling over performance evaluations they see as unfair and invalid. Teachers, children and parents are struggling with new instruction based on the Common Core academic standards.

A district task force has been charged with coming up with ways to maintain order in the schools while suspending fewer students. And chronic problems with student poverty and what many see as inadequate state funding persist.

School board President Pat Body is the only sitting board member on the ballot. The other two seats on the board are open because Calvin Corriders and Richard Strong are stepping down.

Body, a Democrat who is concluding her first four-year term on the board, has come out fighting against what she sees as inadequate state funding and counterproductive state mandates. Those mandates, brought on by the state's compliance with federal Race to the Top policies, include a requirement to transfer out half the staffs at several of the district's struggling schools.

Body, who is on the executive board of the Conference of Big 5 School Districts, says she would like to unite those districts to fight for more resources and fewer mandates from Albany.

"Our children deserve as much as all the rich districts deserve," she said at an Oct. 16 forum. "... It's awful what's happening and we've had enough."

Both Body and Derrick Dorsey, a Democrat who is director of the InterFaith Works Community Wide Dialogue to End Racism, agree that the district must rewrite its code of conduct and reduce the high number of student suspensions. In fact, Dorsey heads the task force appointed by Superintendent Sharon Contreras to do just that.

Dorsey says data analyzed by Dan Losen, the director of the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at UCLA who has been hired to advise the district, show that there is a significant disproportion in the rate of suspensions meted out to students of different races, with black and Hispanic students getting suspended much more often for minor offenses.

Dorsey agrees with Body that increasing state funding is the top issue in the district.

"If we want to address the things that are happening in our buildings we need more money," he said.

Green Party candidate Barbara Humphrey, a former teacher and now research development coordinator at Upstate Medical University, agrees. She said she would seek to get permission from the state for Syracuse to levy an income tax on residents and commuters. Such a tax would increase funding but also help offset the regressive property tax, she said.

"I propose (the money) would go to the schools -- not to administration -- hiring teachers, aides and building personnel, implementing positive behavioral interventions and in-school suspension," she said.

She would also join a coalition to opt out of Race to the Top mandates like the Common Core standards, high-stakes testing and "faulty teacher evaluations."

On student discipline, she has called for a moratorium on suspensions for nonviolent infractions. She also advocates for community schools with deep roots in neighborhoods and family life.

Republican Ed McLaughlin, a retired Syracuse police officer and a bus driver for the Westhill school district, calls any moratorium on suspensions "ludicrous." He said he would put more of the onus on parents, suggesting that parents of ill-behaved kindergartners be required to accompany their children to school until their behavior improves.

McLaughlin, who served on the board from 1998 to 2002, is the only board member to say the district does not need more funding -- and is the only one to say he would not favor expanding full-day pre-kindergarten to all students at this time.

He has said too much money is being spent on central administration, calling the administration building "the castle up on Harrison Street."

"The teachers and the students have to come first," he said. "Even if we have to sacrifice football, the teachers and the students have to come first."

David Cecile, a Democrat who retired from the Syracuse district after 28 years as a teacher and principal, takes a middle road on the discipline issue -- which he says is the most important issue facing the district. He agrees there are too many suspensions, but says many of those suspensions are not for minor infractions. He has called for more alternative programs for chronically disruptive students.

"We need to put staff back in the buildings that are going to work directly on a daily basis with our kids," he said.

Cecile, who still substitutes at Henninger High School, argues that he has the most complete knowledge of what goes on inside the city schools of any of the current board members or candidates. He has said he would like to see board members be more assertive in their interactions with the community and the superintendent.